Guy Shennan

Solution Focused Practice and Hope(s)

Has solution-focused practice always been a hope-focused approach to change, or has this orientation developed since the coining of what has come to be called the “best hopes question”?

Update - having delivered a fascinating and well received plenary at the UKASFP2025C Conference, Guy has now published further reflections on the the subject of 'hope' in relation to Solution Focused Practice at Moments of Hope – Extending my thinking about hope, hoping and changing the world

Guy Shennan’s interest in exploring possibilities afforded by solution-focused practice for social and political change has deepened his interest in hope, or hopes, not only concerning their place in solution-focused practice but more generally.
In this keynote, Guy will share some of what he has found about how hope is viewed and discussed in anthropology, sociology and philosophy, and relate this back to solution-focused practice. An excellent recent account of hope begins: “In the face of hardship people hope - for better times and for signs that suggest that hope is justified”. Guy’s current study of hope has arisen from his own hopes and plans to research how Palestinians hope and what they hope for, references to which will also inform his presentation.

guyshennan@sfpractice.co.uk

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